What fascinates you?

Ok, back again. Damn facebook for killing my blog . . .Oh well, it is what it is. But I am here to pose this question to you . . .

This came about as I was at a training this week and there were two sign language interpreters. Now when there are interpreters present, I am hard pressed to actually pay attention to what I am supposed to be paying attention to. I am not sure when I became so enthralled by the moving hands, the mouthing of words, the seemingly secret club they were all in. The one the other day even winked a number of times. I wanted to be in the club and I could only watch and pretend I knew what they were expressing.

I have thought in the past that I should utilize this fascination for good and take a class or something, but alas I am limited by the few signs I know.

The same could be said for the guitar. I could watch someone play the guitar for hours . . .and I even bought one from my friend and vowed that I would take lessons from her once I finished graduate school. I bought a dvd and a book for dummies or something. You think I ever did anything with that?

I wonder what gets in our way of following through with the things we'd most like to. Maybe it is lack of time, fear of failure, not being able to do it well enough. Well, maybe one day I will sign up for a class or two . . .

What about you?

Things

Things have been pretty crappy the last few days. The family visit this weekend didn't go very well, and ended quite badly actually. This has thrown me for a loop--though today was surely better than yesterday, and perhaps tomorrow will be even better.

We lost another resident yesterday, and another today. It is VERY unusual to lose 4 residents in a matter of a month an a half . . .people are starting to wonder about us. Though all but one had a reason for their death . . .still weird though.

Looking forward to therapy tomorrow, and the nice weather this weekend. The rain hasn't helped the foul mood.

I hope all is well in your corners-

Addie's Corner-Episode 7

This is me . . .playing with a ball. The moms have been taking us to see our friend Buergi and he and his dad have a HUGE backyard that we can run in. Riley seems to think he can outrun me, but that whippersnapper has another thing coming. I usually can run faster than him, but I am not interested in the ball once I get there. This makes the moms mad cause then they have to go get the balls. It's awfully funny!






This is my kid brother Riley--though he has gotten MUCH bigger than when I last had to talk about him. He weighs more than me, and people refer to him as the bigger one. Whatever . . . I have to admit, he is quite handsome. He was even asked to be photographed for a calendar that our local favorite pet store is making. His birthday is coming up next month. He'll be one year old! Right now he is a hunger strike . . .don't know why. He's clearly not so smart to go without food. I always approach each meal as if I haven't eaten in a hundred years!!! I would NEVER skip a meal!




Here's all of us-the three puppy-teers. Riley, Addie, and Buergi laying in the grass. We were all pooped after so much running after the balls and chasing each other. Buergi was in love with Princess, and kept following her around. He didn't know or care that she was old enough to be his grandmother . . .oh well. We accept all kinds around here.








This is our cousin Princess, and how she looked when she would run to the fence waiting for her mommy, daddy, and brother to come back from TX. She was very silly-and sometimes really crazy. So much so that the moms had to resort to herbal supplements. They were called "Quiet Moments" and boy did they help. She got it at night in her food and she was instantly a different puppy. Grammy says that she seems awfully depressed now that she is back home with them. She keeps threatening to send her back here . ..I might need the herbs if THAT happens.




Just me and Riley snuggling! We can really ham it up when we need to!














Riley really liked the snow. Here he is with his bowling pin that quacks. He loves that damn thing, but I have to say that at 6:30 in the morning, I am sure the last thing the neighbors want to hear is quacking. But he carries that thing around like a baby . . .The snow was great fun, though the quacker did NOT quack when it was full of snow.







This is me . . .again. Aren't I beautiful? I just loved the snow, and pretended that I was a snow plow by using my nose. This is what I looked like while I was playing in the snow. I also liked to eat it, though moms kept reminding me to not eat the yellow snow . . .and I kept reminding them that I eat my own poop . . .what's a little yellow snow among friends?

By far the best news I have to share is that with mom's new job, I get to go to work with her a few times a week. I have this really tall boy who comes to walk me . .though sometimes I get scared because he makes funny noises. He doesn't talk, but he's nice enough to take me for a walk twice a day. I also get to visit the classrooms. I have a few that love me very much, and they keep threatening to take me home. This makes me scared and sometimes I get my Ewok ears on. Once classroom even takes me outside with them when they go to gym class. I like to go out for gym, not stay inside. I had to pee in my pants once when I was so scared of the gym. I hope they don't take me there again. It is fun to go to work--I even have a bed there for me. AAhh, the dog's life is for me.

Well, I guess that's it. My paws are getting tired from all this typing. Maybe mom will let me write more often so I don't have to type so much at once. We'll see.

WOOF! Oh, and licks to all the pups out there . . .Lyn's pack especially. That lady is one crazy dog lady . . .we'd have so much fun if she ever came to visit. We could round up Sookie and the others and have a grand ole time!

Update -Part II

So where were we?

We had my parents crazy dog, Princess for a few weeks while they were in TX visiting my brother and Little Tyke--who I will soon need to rename since he is 5 already . . .damn . . .where did time go?














Here he is when he visited us a few months ago . . .
He was so happy that he could finally sit still long enough to be friends with the cat. He has been pursuing that thing since he was a baby and never has he been able to control himself. While the family was in TX, mom had to go to the hospital since she overdosed on the wrong insulin and that was just bad. They take such poor care of themselves and it is seriously hard to watch. I am working hard at realizing that I need to just love them for who they are . . .are realize that I probably won't get what I need from them . . .that is really hard.

I will give an update on the kids in yet another post!

We've been doing a bunch of kid sitting and respite to earn some extra money. We keep trying to be serious about saving money and paying down debt, and then we don't. We recently bought a new car--a 2009 Subaru Forester which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. I have never had a new car, and we knew we'd be getting one this summer anyways. Subaru was having a deal, and we went and looked and liked. We used our Costco card and got a killer discount as well. Though we had to go to Lancaster to get it, and one Beans should NEVER go to Lancaster when she has to pay attention. I am SOOOOO over focused on the buggies--to the point where I nearly crashed my new baby whilst looking at a buggy fest happening in a field next to the road. I swear one day you will see that I have accidently run over a small Amish army with my curiosity. In any case, I love not having to fall to the floor to get in my car, and having to hoist myself getting out of the Saturn.

What else . . .the stink bugs have returned, and we must flush about 20 of them a day. I wish to the good lord of bugs to take back his army and leave me the hell alone.

In other news, we have finally decided to have lawn people come to help us with the mud pit. We signed up for a 6 month treatment which include fertilizing, de-grubbing, seeding in the fall and some other things. The price was reasonable and I think DP agreed to shut me the heck up. Either way, bring on the grass.

I guess that's it for now. We are heading to mom and dad's for the holiday. Hopefully we'll see some friends on Saturday night. I have an appointment with a foot guy on Monday. Foot felt horrible the last few days . . .today perfect. I hate the not knowing what kind of foot day it will be. I guess it could be worse.

Hope you all have a good time celebrating whatever it is that you celebrate!

My weekend . . .in pictures.

The chairs we ordered from By the Yard. They are made from recycled plastic and will apparently last forever. They are really comfortable, and we hope they will hold up. We only had a few extra parts!









The area on the side of our house that has become a mud pit. We decided that it would make a nice shade garden.













We got the little fence, and it was going nicely until we couldn't figure out how to make the middle close. It is being held together with a cable tie. If we decide we like it we will maybe get a real fence in the future. Hopefully the birds will come even with the woofie friends around.







The garden before. We rented a rototiller from Home Depot and an mere hour later we had a garden ready for planting peas--which went in the ground today. We also put up the tomato cages and arranged the rest of the garden area for when our seedlings are ready to plant.
















The after. The soil looks and feels wonderful!














We also tilled a bit of the front of the house and planted some bulbs we pulled up when we moved, and a few that someone from work had given me. We also made a portion of our fence into a gate so that we can get larger pieces of equipment into the yard--such as the stump grinder that will be coming this week to get rid of the stumps. The gate thing was an undertaking, but done This will also work well to get RHB into the back yard if we need at times as well due to her wheelchair.

I am very excited about the garden this year. We got some new cages for the tomatoes since the one last year all broke. We also got some cages for the peppers, eggplants, and peas. We shall see.

My update . . .

Ok, so I haven't officially fallen off the blogesphere, but I sure was close. Thanks to Lyn and Daisy for bringing me back to my senses. So, you may be asking yourself what on EARTH has that girl been up to . . .well, I am about to tell you, so hang on tight!

For starters I started my new job in January, and it is great. I mean, I finally feel like I love what I do, I am making a difference, and it is the right balance of having time to do my work, and to see co-workers, families, and kids. There's a group of us that has lunch together most days and it is nice to laugh and to know there are other folks out there doing similar things and experiencing similar struggles. This also means, of course, that I am actually GOING to work each day, and that took some adjusting, and still is a lot. I don't expect any sympathy, I am just sayin . . .also at work, we have had two kids die in the last month or so, and that has been extremely difficult.

Chronic pain . . .never thought if it really, until I realized that on any given day I was in enough pain to put me at a 6-7 on a scale of 1-10. It has taken a lot to work through the pain in my heel, and just in the last few weeks my other heel has decided that it wanted to hurt as well. Just walking to the other side of the room has been excruciating. I had to switch insurance companies when I changed jobs, and now the insurance I have doesn't allow me to see the guy I was seeing for a while without paying a LOT of money. I went to my family doc to get a referral for another foot guy, and she also gave me an anti inflammatory and a pain pill. I took the pain pill the first couple of nights last week, and it was enough to zonk me out, but not sleep at night so I had a few somewhat sleepless nights. However, the anti-inflammatory on the other hand has been amazing. So much so that there have been some parts of the day that I have little to no pain what-so-ever. I will still make an appointment to see the orthopedist, but I am glad to have some pain free time. Doc told me she was shocked at how flat my feet are and wonder if that doesn't have a significant impact on how I feel and my feet.

Speaking of how I feel, DP and I have been doing weight watchers, and I am down about 11.5 lbs in three weeks. The progress has been slow, but steady and I feel like we are on a much more manageable plan. In the past I have done extreme things and they lasted for a while, or I became totally obsessed. Right now there's a balance between eating well, and having some yummy stuff once in a while. We have been experimenting with different grocery stores in the area, including Trader Joes, Whole Foods, and other generic stores. We've always gone to the others at times, but we have been rotating and it is keeping things interesting.

Well, there's more, but I need to eat . . .stay tuned for some more tomorrow.

Hope all if well in your corners.

Weight Loss

Thanks Lynilu for persevering with me to try and get the weight loss tracker on the page. I started weight watchers two weeks ago and we have been doing really well.

Stay tuned for all this and more to be posted . . in detail . .by the end of the weekend as promised to those of you that saw on facebook!

be back soon!